As a child, I would have hated several items that I love now

While trying to figure out how to work my new phone recently, I was struck by how excited I am to have this amazing new object.

I also thought, though, about how I when I was growing up, I never would have imagined I could be thrilled about the thought of a new phone.

Sure, phones were completely different back then, but I think elementary school Nick Claussen would be disappointed to learn that the adult version would one day be super excited over a new phone.

“Adult Nick is even geekier than I am,” I might have said while my voice cracked. “I hate talking on the phone. Why would I be excited about getting a new phone?”

If you told me that I could watch television on it, I might have been interested, but our television only got four channels at that time, so I would not have been too enthralled.

Basically, no matter what else it might do, it is still a phone and I would have considered it dumb to be excited by that.

This got me thinking about other things that I love today that I would have either not cared about as a kid or would have outright disliked. Here are a few of them:

Running – Why would I run if I wasn’t playing sports or being chased? It does seem that I was being chased a lot by siblings, friends and imaginary (I think) monsters back then, but I never ran just to ran. As an adult, I run on most days, schedule time for it and even pay money sometimes to get up early and go run with a bunch of other people so that I can receive a t-shirt. I would have thought that was pretty idiotic.

Clothes – My wife got me some new sports coats, ties and other nice clothes for a new job I just started, and I love the clothes. I couldn’t wait to where the new ties, walk around in the jackets and stroll by as many mirrors as possible so that I could see how I look and make faces at myself. I do enjoy walking by mirrors, but I know that my younger self is sometimes looking back at me in that reflection and is disappointed that I care about any clothes that are not sports jerseys or t-shirts with sayings that I thought were funny in elementary school.

Sleep – I love naps. I love sleeping in. I even like going to sleep early. I dream about sleeping. When I was younger, I never wanted to nap or go to sleep early. I may have wanted to sleep in and not go to school, but I would have been disappointed in myself for being so excited about sleeping. What a dork.

Restaurants that are not fast food restaurants – As a younger person, I had no idea why anyone would want to go somewhere that did not serve fast food. We didn’t eat out much, but it seemed like the fast food restaurants had all of the menu choices I liked. They had hamburgers, French fries and even ice cream! Why would I want to go somewhere and sit for a long time and wait for food that I could get faster (and possibly with a toy!) at a fast food restaurant? Now, I have a hard time eating at them and prefer to go somewhere and sit and wait, or to eat a home and then take a nap.

Watching the weather on television – When I was younger, the weather report was just a minor inconvenience before they got to the sports report. Weather was boring. Why did I care what the barometric pressure was or what the weather would be five days from now? I can go look out the window when I want to know the weather! Today, though, I love watching the weather forecast. I’ll even look it up on my computer and phone several times a day. I want to know what the forecast is in parts of the country I have never been to, and I want to know what the weather will be in my city two months from now. I still don’t understand what barometric pressure is, but I’m curious about what the meteorologist has to say about it.

Soccer – I didn’t know anything about soccer when I was growing up. I never saw it on television and I never had the opportunity to play it. Now, I play soccer every Saturday and I love watching it on television. I’m not very good at it, but it’s a lot of fun (except for when I score goals for the other team).

Writing a blog – I would have liked the name “blog” as a child, but blogs did not exist and I probably would have thought it was a crazy concept anyway. “How would I type something on the typewriter so that the whole world could see it? That makes no sense! Also, why would anyone want to read my thoughts anyway?” I’m still not sure it’s a very good idea or how I am lucky enough to have people read it, but I love having a blog.

Do you have any items to add to the list? Feel free to comment below. Thanks!

This list is my list. My child self would say we would never enjoy Brussels sprouts, let alone know how to spell them, and yet here we are. Also, in elementary school it was a privilege to retrieve the paper that was fresh off the mimeograph machine, now we have laser printed copies and we don’t sniff those or we risk being dorks.

That is a great list. I understand the dislike of Brussel sprouts when you were younger. I still don’t love them, but I like them more when I was younger. I had forgotten about mimeograph machines, too! That’s a great one. That’s funny about people frowning on you for sniffing printed papers today, too. Thanks!

Naps and watching the weather? Remind me again how old you are…
😉
That being said, for me it’s peace and quiet. When I was young all I wanted was the city, parties with friends and loud concerts. Now? Give me a margarita on my porch with a cool breeze. The only thing making noise? Birds.
And then there’s spinach. Hated it when I was young, now a spinach salad is the perfect summer lunch.

I am old, I agree, but I had a quick nap this afternoon and it was awesome! I agree about the peace and quiet. That’s a great item for this. I also did not like spinach at all growing up, but it is good in a salad today, as long as I have ranch dressing. Thanks!

What a great idea for a post! I definitely get the sleep one and the running one. If I had to add a few on a personal note, young me would not have been excited about having to clean, but I actually enjoy cleaning the house (in most cases…)! Young me also wouldn’t have understood why watching a video of someone talking softly to you would be any form of appealing… but this is a weird world we live in. (Haha, this is really fun! Thank you!)